English Electric . Loco builder extraordinaire

[Legend]

Just a heads up I was in Tesco Port Glasgow today and came across this bookazine @£6.99 . Looking at the locomotives produced by EE , a great evocative name.

 

LMS twins

Class 20

Class 23

Class 40

DP2

Deltics

Class 37

Class 31

DEMU

Class 73

AC Electrics ( 83 and 86)

Class 50

Exports and shunters.

 

It’s a Key publication. Ive done little more than scan it at moment, but it looks quite comprehensive with lots of interesting pictures that I don’t recall seeing before. It does look quite fresh.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Legend

[Titan]

There is quite a few locomotives in that list that EE did not build/produce...

Edited November 26, 2017 by Titan

[SRman]

In the sense of they were built elsewhere but used EE Co power plants and electrical equipment?

The DEMUs were mostly built at Eastleigh but used EE Co engines and generators, for example.

[Steamport Southport]

Here's the link if anyone wants it.

 

http://shop.keypublishing.com/product/View/productCode/SPECELEC/English%20Electric

 

I think there is a quid off if you subscribe to a Key publication. MLI/Hornby Mag/etc., free P&P as well.

 

 

 

 

Jason

Edited November 26, 2017 by Steamport Southport

[EddieB]

A 100-page bookazine full of nice pictures of English Electric locomotives - what’s not to like?

 

Well, quite a lot actually. Coverage is quite patchy. Some “favourites” get plenty of coverage, whereas other significant products very little. Engines are mentioned only when describing some locomotives, there’s no account of their development history (worth seeking out an excellent series of articles on-line, which I suspect was beyond the interest or knowledge of the authors). In places the text is poor, where it looks like it has been rushed to finish to meet the publication deadline (e.g. shunters). Many of the photos are wikimedia commons licensed - good pictures, but saving the publisher royalties and leaving a gap between editor and photographer that fails to benefit the former from the latter’s subject knowledge.

 

Given the importance to English Electric of their export models, their coverage is pitiful. Just three pages, seven images (of which five are wikimedia attributed), an incomplete customer list and concentration on those that were nearest to models built for the domestic market. Had I checked this section before buying, I would not have purchased a copy.

 

As commonly written in those old school reports (and in comparison from other publications from this house): “could do better”.

[Steamport Southport]

It's a cheap supermarket bookazine, not An Illustrated History Of English Electric. 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason

[SRman]

I bought the digital copy. For £3.99 (from memory), it's not bad value.

[Titan]

In the sense of they were built elsewhere but used EE Co power plants and electrical equipment?

 

The DEMUs were mostly built at Eastleigh but used EE Co engines and generators, for example.

 

And not even designed by EE either, and in the Class 31's case it did not even have an EE power plant when built, and even after re-engining still retained all the Brush electrical equipment, including the main generator...

[JohnR]

I'm especially disappointed by the only vague, passing reference to the Southern Trio of prototypes, who arguably did more for the development of main line diesel traction than the LMS twins did. 10203 was basically a prototype class 40, while 10201/2 pushed the performance of the EE engine up towards usable levels.

[John M Upton]

I have been in every WHSmiths for two weeks looking for this and the not dissimilar Class 50 publication that are both supposedly being stocked by said shops "in November" and can I find either of them?  Nope!!

[Legend]

I didn't know there was a class 50 one, but I found it in Tescos. I've got it away with me to read in my hotel this week. So far pretty good I thought with some good pictures . Lots of good Green/Blue transition stuff

Edited November 29, 2017 by Legend

[John M Upton]

The Class 50 one is illustrated in the upper right corner of Irwell Press magazines (British Railways Illustrated and Bylines IIRC) with 'Available November in WHSmiths'.

 

It's November, in fact it is almost December and WHSmiths seem to have never heard of it!!!

[TEDDYBEAR D9521]

The Class 50 one is illustrated in the upper right corner of Irwell Press magazines (British Railways Illustrated and Bylines IIRC) with 'Available November in WHSmiths'.

 

It's November, in fact it is almost December and WHSmiths seem to have never heard of it!!!

Got the 50 book and EE book from WH Smith’s last week had plenty

[walrus]

Slightly off topic but sad news about the job losses / closure at the former English Electric plants in Rugby and Stafford by the current owner General Electric...